Seattle damage

By Mike Spadafora; posted December 18, 2006

Most of the Damage in Seattle was confined to snapped wires ....Seattle has a 28kV primary distrabution system that mostly utalizes #4 copper conductors in residentual areas. Wile these new lines snaped in the storm compairitively little damage happend to the poles and other structures that suported them... Not so here !! This is a remenent leg of the old pre-1940s 4kV primary system in west seattle. A huge 100 foot fir tree fell across the primary feeder shattering one pole and denuding another of all of its conductors . The old 3 wire service drops were riped off all the nearby houses and the transformer from this pole is flat as a pancake bleeding pool of transformer oil all over the street... (smelly!). The can was crushed by the falling pole . To bad it did not take out the next corner pole which was loaded with baby blue Pittsburg signals hemi-19's and carved top Thomases!!! This line did not immediately relay out when it fell, burning the pavement and some of the pole parts in this photo... It would have been fun to be in one of those houses and watch this one come down in the storm. Dangerous stuff!!!